As Indian population is growing rapidly
and it has become the second highest in the world, there is a huge need
to have more healthcare facilities. Most of the hospitals require more
number of nurses and doctors who can treat patients quickly and
efficiently. To fulfill this need, technology has provided a boon called
as Telemedicine and further now it is growing as Telehealth Nursing.
Telehealth Nursing is a very novel concept in India. It is one of the Global Best practices,
which is in the initial stage in India. First, let us understand what
is “Telehealth Nursing” . According to American Telemedicine Association
(ATA), telehealth nursing is defined as the use of
telehealth/telemedicine technology to deliver nursing care and conduct
nursing practice. Nurses are directly engaged in the virtual delivery of
healthcare through telehealth nursing.
Telehealth nurses require the same
nursing skills and knowledge similar to nurses practicing in specialty
areas. Along with this they should have the ability to understand and
apply technology to the best of their capability to assess and
communicate the patient’s physical and mental status. Nurses also need
to understand that even technology has some limitations and certain
aspects in nursing are dealt with physical presence rather than virtual
presence.
Telehealth Nursing is an extension of
Telemedicine. Now, let us understand little bit about Telemedicine.
According to ATA (American Telemedicine Association), it is broadly
defined as the delivery of any health care service through any
telecommunication medium, for example, a patient consulting a physician,
nurse or allied health professional via a video conference, rather than
face to face or in person, or a patient with a chronic condition
utilizing an in home device to monitor vital signs and transmit data to a
nursing center for assessment and medical intervention.
Patients and health care personnel such
as physicians, nurses, and technicians living in different geographical
places can communicate easily with the help of telemedicine. The senior
Director of communication at ATA states that “the one thing that ties
all telemedicine together is that it involves a clinical health care
service, it directly contributes to the health and well being of the
patients, and the patient and provider are separated by some geographic
distance.
We Indians are becoming more technology
savvy and it is need of the hour to understand and utilize Telehealth
Nursing and telemedicine to our best advantage, as we are hugely
populated. People should get all nursing and medical facilities even if
they are in different geographical areas.
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